Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

Originally Posted by Dlb1963

I would love have that my bagles.

It's not a true 'Lox' it's kind of a cross between the Lox and Hard Smoked Salmon but with a little smear on a plain bagel it would be excellent.

Indeed, I think I will get some Nova Scotia for the weekend.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

It's not a true 'Lox' it's kind of a cross between the Lox and Hard Smoked Salmon but with a little smear on a plain bagel it would be excellent.

Isn't it a "schmear"...

Originally Posted by Robini

Isn't it a "schmear"...

Uhh being a WASP myself I wouldn't know, I heard the 'phrase bagels with some smear/schmear/ from Weird Al's tune 'Pretty Fly For A Rabbi'.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

Uhh being a WASP myself I wouldn't know, I heard the 'phrase bagels with some smear/schmear/ from Weird Al's tune 'Pretty Fly For A Rabbi'.

YES! You are spot on sir!

Originally Posted by Robini

YES! You are spot on sir!

Well What The Hell!!??!!??!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usPkL2EQPYo

A guy I used to work with has been making some summer sausage using a 'Kit' from High Mountain (Garlic Black Pepper)
https://www.amazon.com/Hi-Mountain-J..._&dpSrc=detail

He's been using the 80% lean to 20%fat beef from the store OR a mix of the 80/20 with his venison. However while the flavor was good the meat was always 'cooked' and not smoke cooked as it was dry and there would be a lot of fat between the sausage and the casings which also indicated that he wasn't stuffing the fibrous casing tight enough. (at least in my humble opinion)

So I offered to supply the meat, grinder, stuffer, smoker and the chips if he'd bring over enough of the spice packets for 15#'s of meat.

I picked up a 10# tube of the 80/20 from my local stored (it comes in a coarse/chili grind and the stores regrind it) I also had a pork shoulder in the freezer so I got that out and thawed under cold running water. So we ended up with 10#'s of beef and 5#'s of pork.

My friend arrived on Thursday around 10 am and I was ready. We coarse ground the pork through a 3/8" die and mixed it with the beef and then re-ground it through a 3/16" die and mixed in the spices mixed with the required water and started stuffing.

The directions specified that the meat be allowed to set up in the casings for at least 12 but no longer than 24 hours. I since it was about 32 degs out, we hung them in the smoker overnight.

My friend had commitments yesterday so I started smoking at 8am. As I figured it would take almost 8 hours to slowly get the meat up to temp.

After they were up to temp I hung them and used my sprinkler to start cooling them down and to help prevent the casings from shriveling or at least to lesson it (my friend's always looked like giant pepperoni sticks). I did have a couple that did shrivel up a bit but when I cut them to package them the meat was fine.

I didn't bother taking pictures of the grinding, stuffing or what they looked like before smoking but here they are after showering and hanging in the cold smoker overnight.



I cut them into smaller chubs and vacuum sealed them.



Here they are ready for the frig and freezer.



What follows is from Word. I 'tried' to keep sort of a log for my friend to see how I did things and I hope it works and can be read.

Thanks for looking

Smoking Summer Sausage
(Low and Slow is the Way To Go)

Hung overnight in smoker.

8:00 am-Started smoker--Smoker temp about 35 + or -

9:00 am Raised temp and added damp chips--internal temp was 50 degs + or - as I didn't record it.

10:00 am Raised temp and added chips. Smoker temp was 120 degs internal temp was 80 degs + or - as I didn't record it

11:00 am Added Chips. Smoker temp was 120 degs didn't check internal temp

12:00/Noon Internal temp was 100 degs. Smoker temp was 125+ degs. Added chips

1:00 pm Had used three pans of chips. Added last pan of chips/four pans total. About 2 cups (handfuls) per pan. Didn't record internal temp. Smoker temp 130 degs

2:00 pm Internal temp was 116 degs. Smoker temp was 140 degs. Removed chip pan

3:00 pm Internal temp was 130 degs Smoker temp was 160 degs. Adjusted smoker to try to stay at 160 degs. Check in 10 minutes.

3:20 pm (I was late) Internal temp was 133 degs Smoker temp was 150 degs Raised temp

4:00 pm Internal temp was 138 degs Smoker temp was 160 degs

5:00 pm Internal temp was 147 degs Smoker temp was165 degs

5:30 pm Internal temp was 150 degs Smoker temp was 170 degs

6:30 pm Internal temp was 153 degs Smoker temp was 170 degs

7:00 pm Internal temp was 154 degs Smoker temp was 170 degs

8:00 pm Internal temp was 158 degs Smoker temp was 170 degs

8:30 pm Internal temp was bouncing between 159 and 160 degs Smoker was 170 degs.

8:45 pm Internal temp was 162 degs Removed the sausage and started cooling with cold water/normally this is done with a garden hose and just pouring water over the sausages. However I used a sprinkler to cool the sausage. While it's 32 degs out they needed cooled quicker than Cold Air Drying to prevent or diminish the shriveling.

What was the net weight when it was done?

Originally Posted by Dlb1963

What was the net weight when it was done?

I didn't weigh the gross but it was right at 15 lbs as the tube of beef weighed just over 10 lbs and after trimming the pork weighed right at 5 lbs.

I weighed all of the chubs and it came up to 14 lbs 4 oz and most of the loss was in the stuffer tube and a little slop that leaked when I was stuffing/however I added a couple of drops of liquid smoke and fried the slop and it was good!

I bought my Nova today, getting fresh bagels in the morning, now I guess I am going to buy some summer sausage as well.